I closed my eyes as fog filled my head, pushing everything else out. I wanted to cry, but my consciousness was slipping away rapidly. I was about to be gone forever and leave my body an empty shell. It was a surprisingly soothing feeling, luring me into the calm of oblivion. It was hard to resist, but the thought of the people I would leave behind if I gave in made me hold on.

Legally, Noah had no one else to take care of him but me, and that thought terrified me. I should've made arrangements while I still had the chance, but I never wanted to deal with that possibility. I also thought about the family that I had created in my squad. Amanda and I have gotten really close in the last few years through the job and our kids. They spent time together and loved each other like cousins. I knew that if something happened to me she would take care of Noah, but she would have to go to court for it because they weren't blood-related, and I had been too much of a coward to do it properly.

Then there was Fin. He had been like family to me more than anyone else in my life, he'd been by my side the longest and he'd always had my back and supported me, just like a brother. Even the others, who hadn't been in my life for that long, crossed through my mind briefly. I'd miss them, too.

And Elliot. I wanted to see him one more time so badly, to have one last chance to tell him everything I needed to say and he needed to hear, but I had no strength left to fight.

Barely aware anymore, I felt something tightening around my body and a moment later I was yanked out of the water and was placed gently on the bottom of the stairs, where the water didn't reach.

"Liv!" Elliot's hysterical voice sounded muffled like he was behind a closed door or just really far away. I didn't feel like I could move in order to respond. "Come on, baby, don't do that to me!"

Did he just call me baby, or was it a final hallucination before my soul left my body? Was I dying?

"Come on, Liv!" he patted on my cheeks to wake me up.

I must have misheard him. But I really wanted to stick around and find out.

Out of nowhere, the need to wake up exploded in my brain. I opened my eyes wide at once, struggling to get up. Elliot helped me sit up so that I could breathe better and then I felt him patting my back. There wasn't any water in my lungs, I guess I was fighting harder than I thought. It took me several long moments to regain focus and when it finally started to happen, Elliot didn't take his hand down but kept it on my back for support.

"You're ok, everything is ok," he said softly next to me.

I turned my head right and at once, his face was inches from mine. We looked at each other for a moment and I felt my body becoming limp with exhaustion. My head dropped onto his shoulder and my eyes closed against my will. I felt his fingers gently moving the hair from my face and then his palm resting on my wet cheek. The pouring rain outside gave its concert in full volume and I just wanted to sleep right there and then for a week.

"Liv… we have to keep moving," he said eventually. I moaned in response. I was too tired to speak.

"Come on!" he got up abruptly and pulled me to my feet with force, leaving me no choice but to stand. I was confused, it was brutal.

"GIVE HIM BACK."

And then I understood. To my left, Ellie was standing again in the middle of the water and looking at me with her evil eyes. I should've expected it, but it still surprised me.

Elliot started running up the stairs and pulling me with him. Now I was fully awake and alert. The danger caused a new rush of adrenaline that temporarily repressed my exhaustion and allowed me to run for my life.

"Don't leave me here! I'm dead because of YOU!" she kept yelling behind us.

When we reached the open door I heard her crying. It broke my heart, but I tried to keep reminding myself that it wasn't really her. Nevertheless, I felt like I needed to see what was going on with her. I knew that she was some sort of an illusion, but the instinct to help a person in need was stronger than logic for me. As soon as we stepped outside, I turned around to look at her, but Elliot slammed the door shut before I even completed my movement. We both stood in the rain and stared at it for a quick moment, processing the fact that we had actually gotten out.

From the side of my eye, I saw him looking at me and I turned to look towards him. The moon went in and out from behind the rain clouds, giving us a brief moment of soft light. His intense eyes shined at me when the silver light touched them, but he didn't look happy. His eyebrows were pulled closer together and the corners of his mouth were slightly drawn downwards. It seemed like he was about to cry. I thought I saw tears pool in his eyes but I didn't trust my own vision because of the rain and the dark, and also because I had never seen Elliot Stabler cry. Except for Kathy's funeral, where it was easier for him, of course, because then, it was socially acceptable and even expected for him to cry.

"I thought you were gone," he suddenly said with a shaky voice.

I stared at him and realized that he still cared for me as much as he used to, before he disappeared from my life. The way he looked at me now was exactly how he had in the past. I didn't know what his feelings for me were exactly, but it was obvious that time and distance hadn't been able to change them, which had probably been his intention when he went away. What I did know was what my feelings for him were, and I knew that I would never be able to stop loving him.

Without saying another word we both moved simultaneously into a hug. Tears started streaming down my face as I held him tight, but I couldn't feel them on my cheeks after they dropped from my eyes. I was already soaking wet from being drowned and from the rain that was falling on us, it just all blended together. As he embraced me, my near-death experience started to sink in. He had saved my life.

Elliot held me tighter than ever before, he held me as if he was afraid I might drown again right there and then. I felt his fast breathing on my neck and I held him tighter too, closing my eyes and melting into his arms, his chest. I was pressed hard against him and it felt comforting, like nothing in the world could hurt me. The need to become one with him burned in me.

If it was up to me, I would've stayed like that for a long time, but when I felt his breathing slowing down as he calmed down, I knew it wouldn't take long until he pulled back, away from me,away from his feelings. For some reason, he looked embarrassed when he did.

"Thank you for saving my life," I tried to keep my voice steady but I couldn't fully control it.

"Are you kidding me? You don't need to thank me for that."

"Well, you did save my life."

He lingered for a moment and then mumbled quietly, "not just yours."

I wasn't sure what he meant by that, but he looked so awkward that I decided not to ask.

"Let's go back to the road that led us to this damn place," I eventually said to change the subject. Once again, I was falling into my usual pattern of keeping my feelings to myself. I wished it could be easy for me to open up but I just wasn't that person. Every bad thing that had happened to me in life had added wall after wall around me, closing me off more and more. If I could avoid talking about my emotions in any given situation I'd do it. The fact that Elliot wasn't any better at it made the situation worse. I couldn't imagine us ever having an open and honest conversation about our feelings or the things we had been through.

I sighed and shook my head a little before I looked around to understand where we were standing. The world around us was mostly swallowed by the darkness of the night, but I could see the shadows of the trees and bushes that were lined up like a fence on the edges of the big backyard. I couldn't see much, but I was certain that they were neglected and somewhat ominous, just like the rest of this place. They moved violently with what at first I thought was the wind, but then realized that there wasn't a specific direction to their movement. It didn't make sense, but I wasn't surprised anymore, I just had chills. They resembled moving creatures.

"Come on," Elliot took my hand and we started walking along the wall of the long building. We had to go around it to make our way back to the front, from which we arrived at the hotel, in order to be able to leave. Going through the backyard wasn't an option, because we didn't know where it would lead us. The safest thing to do was to go back to the main road. From there, we could either go back to the car, or walk to Dorbridge and get help there. Since the batteries of both of our phones had died, the second option seemed more practical.

Elliot held my hand tightly to make sure I didn't suddenly disappear from his side again. For a moment, I thought to sarcastically reassure him that I wasn't going to drown in any puddles, but I was grateful for what he had done for me a few minutes ago and that he was holding me like that, because I was too tired to focus on my surroundings.

As we walked, I watched his profile. The night was so dark, but I knew his face by heart. I must have spent hours of my life just looking at it from all angles. The sight of him comforted me, even with all of the emotional baggage that he had brought back with him. The familiarity of him caring for me and protecting me made me feel safe even in this wild place. Looking at him, I thought to myself that everyone should have an Elliot Stabler in their life.

We reached the end of the wall. Peeking around the corner revealed a narrow path that would allow us to continue walking along the building toward the front of it. The path was only about a yard wide and on the other side of it were bushes. It was too dark to see what lied beyond them, or even if there was a way out through that living fence. The rain kept falling on us, not even giving us the opportunity to start getting dry. It didn't subside even for a minute. In fact, now that I had time to think about it, I realized that it had been steady since it started falling. It felt unnatural, monotonous.

I glanced over at the bushes closest to us while Elliot kept peeking around the wall to see if the coast was clear. Between all of the dark shadows, I suddenly noticed two eyes glowing from within them. There wasn't any light around to return so there was no reason for them to glow like that. I shut my eyes tight for a second and opened them again, convinced that I was so tired I was seeing things. But they were still there, two eyes watching us. I couldn't tell what they belonged to exactly, but I knew I didn't want to find out.

Tugging on his arm, I tried to get Elliot's attention. He looked at me in confusion for a moment, and then looked to where I was pointing.

"What is that?" I whispered.

"I don't know, some nocturnal animal?" he didn't sound bothered by it.

"And how are the eyes glowing when it's almost completely dark out here?"

Elliot stared at me and I tried to make out his facial expression. I couldn't tell if he thought I was being silly, or he just didn't have an answer because I was right. I didn't understand how, after everything we'd been through in this place, he could remain so calm.

When I looked over at where I had seen the eyes just a moment ago, they were gone.

"Problem solved," Elliot said and turned to look again at the path we wanted to take. He was obviously desperate to get out of this place, but I was worried that we were being reckless. "I think the coast is clear, we can start walking toward the parking lot at the front and get the hell out of here," he added.

I looked at where we were supposed to go and decided not to say anything else about the eyes. Maybe Elliot was right in not giving them any importance.

We started to advance carefully along the side of the building. Elliot didn't let go of my hand the entire time, even when I had to walk slightly behind him because I didn't want to be too close to the bushes. I kept watching their shadows and listening for any sounds that might indicate movement – rattling leaves or cracking branches or anything of the sort – but the rain was so loud, it was like a wall of sound that blocked everything else.

We had almost reached the front of the hotel when I saw them again. Two glowing eyes looking at us. It made me stop so firmly that Elliot couldn't move forward and he had to turn around to see what was going on. Whatever it was in the bushes, it wasn't moving, just watching us. I feared it was a predator watching its prey before attacking.

From the side of my eye, I could see Elliot looking at me and then at where I was looking. We both stood there, watching as if under hypnosis the eyes that were watching us.

You will never leave here, a whisper passed by my ear like a gust of wind.

I jumped and clung onto Elliot, clawing at his shoulders as if I was about to fall off a cliff. It had been such a long time since I had someone by my side that I could blindly trust my life with. I had gotten used to having my own back, especially after Lewis. Back then I realized that without Elliot, I had no one in my life to notice if I was gone for more than a few hours, to always have my back, even when we were at different places. I had my squad, of course, but it wasn't the same. I wasn't always on their minds like I was on his. When we were partners, he had a wife and four children, later on five, yet I was still the one he called or texted on his days off, the one he preferred to work overtime with rather than going home, the one he knew would do anything for him just like he would do anything for me. What we had was different than any other relationship in our lives for both of us. It was hard for me to describe in words, even after a decade of being apart, and now all of it was back in my life again and it was weird to feel myself falling back into my place next to him so quickly and so effortlessly. It was a natural, forceful process that I couldn't stop even if I wanted to, and deep inside I didn't, even though we had a lot of wounds that needed healing.

I looked at where I had just been standing a second ago before jumping into his arms, but I couldn't see anything. "Did you hear that?!" I kept looking around us frantically. I couldn't figure out how I had even managed to hear a whisper over the rain.

"No, hear what? God, Liv, you're shaking." He put his arms around my waist.

"Someone just whispered in my ear," my eyes were open wide in the darkness. We stood there in the pouring rain without moving, trying to perceive any suspicious sights or sounds. Whatever it was that I heard seemed to disappear as it came.

Suddenly, Elliot pushed me away from him. Not backwards, but to the side. It made me trip and almost fall, but I managed to regain my balance at the last moment. I turned around, shocked and confused but mostly indignant. It felt like he was casting me aside and I wanted to know why, but the words never left my mouth because I saw a sight that froze my blood: two hands coming out of the bush that was just behind me a moment ago, fingers wrapped around Elliot's neck as he struggled to release himself. The hands were so pearly white that I could see them well even in the dark.

"Elliot!" I yelled in horror and rushed to help him. Without thinking, I grabbed the wrists of the hands that were choking him. They were ice-cold and strange to the touch. It didn't feel like I was touching skin, but more like marble. I tried to pull them away from him with all my might, but they wouldn't budge. It was like trying to move a sculpture's arms.

"Leave him alone!" as I yelled it, I wondered who I was talking to. The hands didn't seem to belong to a body.

Elliot wanted to say something as his fingers tried to pry open the hands around his neck, but he was failing in both. I could see he was losing his strength fast, the longer he was without air. The sight of him was tearing me apart. I felt so helpless, just like in the dream I had before, in which he was dead.

I got down on the ground and started feeling with my hands after something that might help me. I could feel several small stones, but I didn't see anyone to throw them at. A lot of leaves were covering the path we were on. Between the rain and the darkness, I didn't even realize it until that moment, but they couldn't be of use anyway.

Finally, my hand landed on something that I recognized as a big enough stick that might be helpful. I was already getting back on my feet as I grabbed it, and started to hit the hands with it as hard as I could.

They wouldn't budge.

"LET." hit. "GO!" hit.

Nothing. Elliot was running out of time and so was I, if anything were to happen to him.

All of a sudden I understood what he meant earlier when he said he didn't only save my life. He saved his own life by saving me, and now I had to save his life to save mine. Neither of us could stand the thought of existing without the other. Determined, I pointed the end of the stick at the bush, from which the hands were coming out of, and jabbed it as hard as I could.

At once, a monstrous, angry sound came out of the bush and the hands let go of Elliot's neck. I repeated the motion a few more times, dodging the hands as they tried to grab the stick instead. Eventually, they gave up and disappeared back into the bush, but I suspected it was only a matter of time before they reappeared.

Elliot bent over, coughing and gagging, trying to get his breath back. I held onto the stick, just in case, but placed my free hand on his back, patting on it gently like he did for me when I was in his situation only minutes ago.

"You ok?" I asked over the clamor of the rain.

Elliot nodded with his head still down. He took a few more seconds and then stood back up slowly, one hand on his chest.

"Are you sure?"

He looked so fragile to me at that moment. All I wanted was to be cuddling with him in a warm bed instead of being cold and soaking wet and fighting for our lives in this hell hole.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," he growled in anger. I knew that tone. The thing that strangled him was lucky it wasn't in front of him right now. Actually, Elliot was probably the lucky one.

I grabbed his hand and led the way. He had done that enough during our time in this horrible place and I let him because I liked feeling protected by him again, but he wasn't invincible and I wanted to protect him too. Luckily, he didn't oppose it, though I was willing to fight him about it if he did.

We walked as fast as we could with him still trying to regain his strength and stop coughing. The big gravel lot at the front of the building, which I assumed was used once as a parking lot for the hotel guests, was only a few steps away. We were about to be in a vulnerable position by crossing it, because there was no wall there to hide behind. Unfortunately, it was the only way we knew that would take us back to the main road from which we came, since we were unfamiliar with the area.

We stopped right before departing from the wall that offered us cover – as long as we didn't get close enough to the bushes – in order to survey the parking lot before stepping onto it. The rain pounded on our heads and kept soaking us to our cores incessantly. It was almost cruel in its behavior, if nature had human intent.

"I can't see much, it's too dark," I stated the obvious. Elliot came close behind me and peeked over my head.

"Yeah, we're just gonna have to take the risk. How do you wanna do it?" He looked at me, waiting for orders.

I was taken aback for a moment. Was that his way of showing me he respected my rank? Or that he simply trusted me like back in the day? I hoped that both. Maybe he was just still weak or maybe it was all of the above.

"I think we'll just have to walk as quickly as possible through the middle part, so we don't risk getting too close to the bushes and repeating what just happened," I had no idea if what I was saying made sense, but nothing in this place did. If we learned one thing from staying here, it was that anything could happen.

"Definitely through the middle part, not going anywhere near those damn bushes again," he threw a resentful look at the shadows of the plants that bordered the parking lot and absent-mindedly rubbed his neck.

"Ok. Ready?" I asked because I wasn't. A strong, irrational need to stay in that exact spot until dawn washed over me and seeped deeper than the rain, but I knew we could be dead by then if we stayed. I was just too afraid to move after everything we had gone through.

Elliot squeezed my hand in encouragement and I wondered if he was feeling the same.

"Let's go," he said and we started walking immediately before we got a chance to think about it any further.

It wasn't the fastest walk. Our shoes were filled with water and our bodies were exhausted. My body felt like it was made from cement and I was sure that Elliot was also feeling heavy, but we both did our best. I held his hand tight, waiting for something bad to happen. Beneath our heavy steps I could feel the gravel, though I couldn't hear it with the loud downpour blasting our ears.

Out of nowhere, a square of light appeared on the ground a few steps ahead of us, as if someone had turned on the light in one of the rooms on the first floor behind us. We both froze on the spot at the exact same time and slowly looked at each other.

"There's someone up there?" Elliot asked quietly.

"It's another trick," I couldn't believe in anything anymore.

"Should we take a look?"

"I say we ignore it and keep going," I knew that in the back of his mind he was still wondering if Eli was there or not, and I was scared he might want to go back in there.

"If there's electricity –"

"Elliot, there's nothing there, you know it. Nothing is real in this place."

He frowned at me as he considered it briefly and eventually nodded in agreement. "Let's go."

I was relieved. As soon as we started walking again, a silhouette of a person appeared in the square of light. Elliot wanted to stop again but I pulled him with me as I kept moving forward. After a few steps, we walked over the square of light as we continued our way toward the main road.

"DAD!"

Elliot let go of my hand at once and turned around the second he heard Eli's voice. I turned around, too, and saw the shadowy figure of someone standing at the window.

"DAD, I NEED YOU!" His voice echoed in the vacant parking lot.

"Eli," Elliot mumbled and I watched as if in slow motion as he started to run back toward the hotel.